The Cost of Forgiveness
by Jellico
Summary: AU for S2-E21. Once Lucas learns that Dan has been embezzling money to help build his college fund, he regrets planning to destroy him and decides to return to his father all the evidence he's been collecting. Confession is good for the soul, right? Maybe so, but here's the thing: it's not so good for the bottom when you're the son of Dan Scott...


**A/N : In this AU, Lucas doesn't move out when Deb and Nathan move back in with Dan, so all four are in the mansion when Lucas makes his confession.**

* * *

In his room across the hall from Nathan's, Lucas finally quit wearing a trench in the carpet and took up the file folder on his bed. It was almost two A.M. on Saturday, and he was cold dressed only in plaid pajama shorts and a white cotton T-shirt, but he barely noticed.

Every night for a week now he'd been pacing past that damn folder and staring at it with dread, vacillating on what he should do with it, but enough was enough. He knew what to do. He had tried to be Dan Scott for a while, had tried to be conniving and ruthless, but it wasn't him and he couldn't keep going that way, not after what he'd learned from Andy.

Was he making a mistake?

Probably. But if he was, so be it. It shouldn't be up to him to bring down his own father. He was only sixteen years old. He didn't want to do it anymore and he wasn't going to do it anymore, and all the evidence he'd been collecting needed to get the hell out of his possession. He was fed up of it tempting him and he was tired of being dishonest, of daydreaming about that college fund. He could never accept it now that he knew where the money came from, but that was beside the point. If Dan Scott was taking the time to build it, then he must truly want Lucas for a son. And if he did, then Lucas wanted him too for a father ... just not on a foundation of lies. The schemes and deceit, the greed and the backbiting had to stop now, but Lucas himself obviously had to be the one to take the first step. If he kept waiting for Dan, he'd been waiting a very long time.

With this decision in mind, Luke tightened his grip on the file folder then left his room. In the silent darkness of the hallway, he took a step to the left towards the master bedroom, but then stopped, bit his lower lip and headed for the stairs instead. And all the way down in the dark he fretted about the fallout.

What would Dan do when he learned that Lucas had been plotting his financial ruin? Dan wasn't a yeller, but he was definitely a man of action.

Would he insult him for not being strong enough to see things through?

Would he rough him up but still forgive him?

Or would he kick his ass to the curb then turn his back on him forever?

With each step he took Lucas tried not to dwell on that last possibility. It had been a rough start when he had first moved in with his father, and conversations had really grown stilted once Deb and Nathan had moved back in as well, but things had improved quite a bit over the last six weeks, and Lucas was developing a taste now for what he'd been missing all those years living alone with a single mother. Deb definitely wasn't his mom, but she was still a good person. And having Dan under the same roof was actually comforting sometimes, not to mention having Nathan so easily accessible right across the hall. Lucas wasn't ready to give them up yet, any of them.

More scared than he wanted to admit at the prospect of losing his new home and his new family, Lucas nonetheless refused to retreat and scuttle back to his room. Instead, he picked up the pace until he reached the hallway that led to his father's home office, determined to do the right thing.

As soon as he rounded the corner, however, he froze.

He'd been meaning to leave the folder on Dan's desk with a note taped to the front explaining things, but that plan was now shot. Ahead, the door to the office was open and light from inside was spilling out into the hall, which meant one thing and one thing only: Dan wasn't asleep upstairs beside Deb as Lucas had assumed. He was awake and he was down here, and since the shredder was running again, devouring sheet after sheet of paper at regular intervals, Dan was probably erasing new evidence about his criminal activities.

Then again ... maybe he wasn't. Maybe he wasn't destroying anything illegal at all. Maybe he was just cleaning house like Luke's mom did sometimes, shredding old cable bills and phone bills and credit card statements instead of tossing them whole in the trash. Identity thieves were everywhere nowadays. Maybe Dan was just being a cautious consumer.

Not really believing that, but clinging to the possibility anyway, Lucas reminded himself of his decision upstairs and strode forward just as the shredder was cut off. In the doorway he came to a halt. Dan was sifting through an unmarked banker's box on his desk, his attention on the various documents inside, so Lucas took a single step inside the room, then forced himself to say the one word that always caused his gut to clench.

"Dad?"

If ever Lucas wanted to get his father's attention, that was the way to go. Behind his desk Dan looked up in surprise, a smile of welcome immediately spreading across his face.

"You're up kind of late, aren't you, son?"

"Yeah, I couldn't sleep. I, uh, need to talk to you."

Dan waited for him to continue, his patience turning to amusement as Lucas stood rooted to the spot, silent and uncomfortable. Clearly his kid needed a nudge, so Dan gestured to the folder Lucas was clutching. "Something on your mind? What's that you're holding?"

Stiffly, Lucas looked down at his right hand and then back at Dan. He felt a tick starting by one ear. "This … uh, you know how you called me ... duplicitous ... when I first moved in a few months ago?"

"I remember."

Dan was smirking now, and the moment Lucas saw it, he wanted to clam up defensively and walk away, but he forced himself to stand tall and stepped closer to the desk.

"Yeah, well ... I don't want to be that guy anymore ... and I've decided I'm not gonna be him. I just want to be what I am: a kid in high school who's finally getting to know his dad. I want to be able to trust you."

"And you can, son." Dan winked as though sharing a secret. "I promise you."

Lucas said nothing. Without returning his father's smile, he stared into Dan's eyes a moment longer before looking down at the file he had built. All at once, he took a deep breath then offered it to the man who had sired him, then abandoned him, then finally welcomed him into his home as part of an extortionist deal. "Here."

"What's this?"

As Dan opened the folder, flipped through the contents, and then lost his good humor a millisecond later, Lucas swallowed hard but kept going. "It's stuff I was collecting to, uh, bring you down. I started doing it once I moved in. I thought you deserved it after what you did to my mom and Keith, but I'm stopping now because I … because ... Dad?"

It took the man in question well over a minute to realize that Luke's voice had trailed off and that the teenager had grown guarded and silent. Finally, an infuriated Dan tore his eyes away from the folder trembling lightly in his hands. "Because _what_?"

At the stone-cold expression Dan wore, Lucas braced himself for the worst. "Because I realize that if I go down this road ... I might ... I might become you, become the way you were with Keith when you found out he slept with Deb, and the way you were with her too for a while after that. I, uh, I don't want to become the worst version of you, bitter and vengeful and conniving. I want to be better. 'An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind.'"

For what seemed like forever, Dan stared at him in absolute silence but then a flicker of something crossed his eyes. "Gandhi," he said.

Lucas nodded, not sure what to make of the fact that Dan recognized the origin of that quote. He spotted his father's high school diploma framed on one of the bookshelves and thought of his mother who was probably missing him fiercely at home. He winced as he looked back at Dan. "I could end up causing even more pain to the very people I'm trying to help, pretty much like I'm doing with my mom by living here against her wishes, so ... so that's it." Lucas nodded briefly to the open folder Dan still held in his hands. "That's all of it, everything I had on you. I know what you do for a living now and how you make so much money, but I've decided ... I've decided I don't care enough anymore to bring you down. I regret even trying. I'm sorry."

Lucas waited for Dan's usual colors to assert themselves, for the berating to begin, or the accusations of ingratitude, or even for Dan to come around the desk and shove him up against a wall like he'd done to Nathan in the past, but nothing happened. Dan Scott said nothing and did nothing about what he'd just learned, and the longer this went on, the longer the man just studied him without the tiniest bit of warmth, the more Lucas realized he'd blown it. Dan was never going to forgive this. Lucas had been a fool to hope otherwise.

He told himself it didn't matter and turned to go, but the moment he did his father called after him.

"Where do you think you're going? Lucas! Where do you think you're going?"

Close to the door, Lucas stopped but only turned back to him halfway. "I'm going upstairs to pack."

"Why?"

"Why do you think?"

"Answer me!"

"You wanna know why?" Lucas took a painful breath, hating Dan for making him say it. "Because you don't want me here anymore, that's why."

"You _really_ believe that?"

Lucas turned to face Dan completely now, his face flushed. "How can I believe anything else? I screwed up, _Dad_. We both know I did. You're never going to trust me after this or think of me like you do Nathan, like a real son."

Dan shook his head as he began coming around the desk. "You're wrong."

"I doubt it," Lucas watched Dan advancing on him and suddenly expelled a bitter laugh. "You know, I thought you treated me like crap before, but I'm willing to bet it can always get worse. You should see the look on your face right now."

"Lucas—"

As Dan reached him and grabbed his arm, Lucas took a step in retreat. "Let go. I'm moving back to my mom's house in the morning."

"So that's it, huh?" Dan tightened his hold, forcing him to stay. "You're just gonna dump this on me then run back to your mommy?"

"I have to! I don't belong here with you!"

 _"That's your mother talking! Stop fighting me, Lucas, and man up! Just say what you want!"_

Lucas opened his mouth to snap a retort and then he just ... gave up. Behind his anger tears had been building, tears he'd been trying to supress in order to show strength before a man who disdained weakness in others, but Lucas didn't feel strong anymore. He was just a kid and his heart was breaking. He felt one tear escape but didn't try to stop it. He raised his chin and let it roll unchecked down his face.

"What I want is just to be your son. It's what I've always wanted and you know it."

What Lucas expected his father to do next, he honestly couldn't say, but all at once, he found himself crushed against the man's chest, trapped in a protective embrace. A part of Lucas didn't understand how Dan could react so quickly, but a larger part of him didn't care. He didn't care that Dan Scott was an embezzler and a blackmailer and a dismissive, friendless jackass. He was still his father, and right now, he was hugging Luke tight for the first time ever in his life. With both eyes filling up, Lucas returned Dan's embrace.

Dan held him close for another minute or so, then eased him away and clapped him on the shoulder. "It's settled then," he said, his gaze much warmer than it was a moment ago. "You don't want to go home to your mother and I don't want you running back to her either. You're _my_ son now."

"But all that stuff I was collecting..." Shamefaced, Lucas sniffed and brushed a hand over his eyes before nodding at the incriminating folder on the desk. "I was gonna betray—"

"But you didn't," Dan cut him off, "which means you are my son and you always have been."

"Thanks, I—"

"Don't thank me yet," Dan interrupted. As Lucas froze, Dan removed his hand from his son's shoulder and studied him, his expression once again stern. "We have a problem, son. Maybe you didn't turn over all that stuff you've been collecting to the police, but you stole, you lied and you snuck around my offices to get it. And some of that information isn't easy to find for a boy still in high school. I know you couldn't get it on your own, so that tells me you brought in at least one outsider. Let me guess, your mother's new rich bitch boy toy, Andy, am I right?"

Lucas shook his head slowly, his face draining of color. "Please don't go after him. He doesn't care about seeing you prosecuted. He was only doing me a favor 'cause I asked him to."

"I hope that's true for his sake," Dan said, "but you are still in trouble."

When Dan said nothing further and just stood there, his jaw pulsing dangerously, Luke's heart began to race. Dan was going to do something about his attempted treachery, that much was obvious, but what? Knowing all too well how vengeful the man could be, Lucas had to ask.

"Exactly what do you mean I'm in trouble?"

"I mean you're in big trouble," Dan repeated, giving nothing away. "And if you really see me as your father, then I need to step up and be a real father to you. I need to deal with you here and now, so I can forgive you and we can move past this."

"Deal with me how? You don't forgive easily."

As Lucas tensed up even more, clearly not trusting him, Dan cupped a hand on the teenager's neck. He squeezed it with intent but also with affection. "You're my firstborn son, Lucas. Believe it or not, I can forgive you just about anything."

"Yeah, but how?" Luke persisted. He thought of the last devil's bargain he had made with his father and braced himself accordingly. "What're you gonna make me do?"

Dan let him go and stared at him hard. He said, "I'm not going to make you do anything, Lucas. I'm just going to punish you the same way I know your uncle has at least once in the past."

"You mean like grounding me? Uncle Keith—"

"I'm not talking about grounding." Dan's lip curled at the notion. "Grounding is for pussies. It's a tool for weak parents and I don't do weak. I'm talking about what my brother did when you borrowed one of his trucks without permission and then drove it into the next county."

Lucas couldn't speak. Just like that, his face was afire, his palms were clammy and his butt cheeks were clenching, his mind spinning back sickeningly fast to his last year in junior high school. That was when his very angry uncle had caught up to him inside the sheriff's office in Swansboro, and that was also when he'd announced through clenched teeth that Lucas was in for one helluva spanking once they got back home to Tree Hill. And Keith hadn't been lying either. With Karen's blessing, he had given his protesting, foot-dragging nephew exactly that once they were out of the truck and behind closed doors. And all of Luke's squirming, and apologizing, and eventually his crying hadn't changed that one iota.

When had Keith told Dan about that incident? And what precisely did he reveal?

Frankly, Luke was too embarrassed to ask. He couldn't even bring himself to admit aloud that, yes, Keith had spanked him once. All he could do was swallow against a throat that was spontaneously dry, and then gulp again as he objected using the only defense that would come to mind.

"Dad, I'm too old now and that was-that was three years ago. I-I was thirteen. I was just a dumb kid—"

"And you still are from what you've just proven to me."

"But you can't—"

"Oh yes, I can, son. You're living under my roof and you're—"

"No. No way." Lucas scowled at Dan and backed up a step, his muscles primed for fight. "I'll move back to my mom's house then 'cause there's no way I'm not gonna let—"

 _"Lucas, am I your father?"_

Lucas shut his mouth and glared at a nearby bookcase. He swore inside his head and told himself he wasn't going to answer that question, but a fleeting peek at Dan's face told him he'd better do it and do it soon.

"Fine," he huffed, "you're my father, but that doesn't give you the right—"

"It gives me every right," Dan cut him off. "We live in the South, remember? If your grandfather was here right now, he'd say paddling your ass is exactly what I should do. Besides, didn't you just say you always wanted me in your life?"

"Yeah, but—"

"Stop right there because there's nothing else to discuss." Before Lucas could keep arguing, Dan counted the facts as he saw them on his right hand. "One, you did wrong. Two, I'm your father. Three, it's a father's job to discipline his son."

"Wait!" As Dan promptly took hold of his arm and then marched them both to the fat leather chair stationed to the left of the office door, Lucas pulled back with all his strength and tried to twist himself free. "You can't do this! I'm-I'm barely your son after all those years you ignored me! And you never did this to Nathan! You never spanked _him_ , did you?!"

"No," Dan agreed still yanking him forward, "and we both know I should have. If I had loved him enough, I would have given him many times over exactly what you're going to get. Maybe then he wouldn't be so much like me." By the chair, Dan stopped and stared down at a struggling Luke, his grip much tighter than it was an instant ago. "As for you 'barely' being my son, that's a load of crap, Lucas, and I'm going to prove it to you right now."

The sixteen-year-old didn't get a chance to reply. One moment he was upright, the next he was not. One moment he could breathe, the next his chest felt entirely devoid of oxygen. With the door kicked shut, Dan now seated on the edge of the brown leather chair and Lucas hauled face down over his lap, the contents of Luke's lungs seemed to escape, and it took more than a few panicked moments for a rush of air to replace them. Unfortunately, everything gained was lost a second later once the flat of Dan's palm connected with his thinly covered bottom.

"Ahhh-Owww! Shit!"

A shocked yelp of true pain erupted from Luke's mouth before he could silence himself. This couldn't be happening, and it absolutely wasn't going to happen again if he could help it – except it did, over and over and over again until he couldn't deny reality for one second more. This wasn't a delusion, or some kind of kinky fantasy, or even a truly vivid nightmare. His butt was definitely bouncing at regular intervals and he couldn't get up no matter how fiercely he fought. The seat of his pajama shorts was also heating up to a very worrisome degree and all of this was happening because he was being spanked in punishment – _spanked!_ – by Dan Scott of all father who had disregarded his existence for close to seventeen years had just done a complete 180 and was now all gung-ho about raising him right, which evidently involved smacking Lucas's behind whenever he did wrong because that was precisely what was happening now. Nothing was deterring the man, not kicking, not shoving, not cursing, not yelling, none of it was making a single bit of difference. Solid, agonizing slaps kept landing all over Luke's bottom no matter how often he threw a hand back or how many times he threatened to tell his mom, and no matter what section of his rear end he tried to protect with the back of his hand, his dad always managed to slap around it. Over and over, the man popped his backside right through his shorts so hard it almost felt like he wasn't wearing anything at all, and finally, Lucas couldn't help but start to plead.

"Da-ad! Okay, Dad, please! I'm sorry, Dad! _Please! I'm sorry!_ "

God, how Lucas needed more layers! He needed another pair of shorts, or a truly thick pair of jeans, or better still, both items topped by a doubled-up woolen blanket, because he knew – he just _knew_ – he wouldn't be able to take much more of this without crying. Even with the understanding that Nathan and Deb were in the house and might wake up at any minute thanks to the racket he was making, Lucas still could not stifle himself. Each spank to his ass was forcing him to yell like a little boy, driving home the fact that he _was_ one in Dan's eyes, a bad little boy who deserved a spanking over Daddy's knees for what he had done.

 _"Stop! God, Dad! Please!"_

But Dan didn't stop.

Unable to withstand the constant, throbbing, burning pain, Lucas began to let out one whimper after another, infuriated by his childish reaction yet helpless to contain it. He was scared that things were going to get worse before they got better, and he was right to be concerned because they did get worse. They got a helluva lot worse. At the three-quarter mark, Dan took hold of his flapping right wrist and pressed it into the small of his back, and then he began to yank on his pajama shorts so there would be no forgetting this lesson.

Lucas thought he'd felt shame before, but once the tugging at his waistband began, there was simply no comparison. He didn't think of his brother, or his stepmother, or the crippling embarrassment he would have to live with if they overheard him now, came down to investigate and walked in on him getting a spanking. The only thing he knew was this: he had to stop his father or he would die – literally _die_ – of mortification.

"NO! NO, DAD! I HATE YOU! _PLEASE! DAA_ - _AAD!_ "

Dan kept going. While Lucas thrashed left and right over his lap and bucked like a scalded horse in a desperate bid to rise, Dan leaned on him with an elbow, using the same arm that was pinning Luke's wrist to keep him in place. With his son going nowhere and Luke's cotton T-shirt only helping things along by riding up his back a few inches, Dan pulled mercilessly on the plaid shorts that Lucas was wearing until they exposed the top cleft in his teenaged buttocks and then lay his entire bottom completely bare. On the other side, Lucas felt his penis bounce free and felt humiliation like never before from what was happening to him, but still Dan kept on pulling down his pajama shorts. The man didn't stop until the cotton material had been lowered to Luke's knees and even then there was no respite. He raised his strong right hand, then slapped the now naked target before him twice with a solid one-two whack that brought a flood of heavy tears to Luke's eyes, and then within seconds, he'd done it again and then a third time, quickly developing a rhythm that was excruciating to his son and absolutely impossible to ignore.

Ten more of these and the sixteen-year-old simply could not hold back any longer.

Lucas took one last shuddering breath and then broke down into loud, wracking sobs. He managed to pull himself together somewhat after the initial shock of this latest attack had abated a little, but his voice was both hoarse and thick, and he stuttered like a toddler with nearly every word he managed to choke out.

 _"D-Dad! D-Dad, p-please! S-S-Stop!"_

"I will when I'm done."

 _"P-Please, Dad! Oww! Owwwwww! Daa-aad!"_

"No son of mine does what you did, Lucas."

 _"I'm s-sorry! Ahhh!"_

"I won't allow it."

 _"P-Please, Dad! Owww! P-Please!"_

"I won't accept it."

 _"Stop! Ow! Ow! S-Stop!"_

"And I won't ignore it."

 _"I'm s-sorry, Daddy! P-Please! Please, Daddeeee! I'm s-sorreeee!"_

On the verge of raising his hand again, Dan listened to his firstborn son calling him 'daddy' and discovered he could not go on. With eyes that were suddenly very bright, he blinked fast then raised the pajama shorts he had lowered until Lucas was decently covered, and then he helped the crying teenager to stand until they were both on their feet and Luke was bawling into his shoulder.

"It's all right, son. It's over now. Shhh. I forgive you."

Whatever it was that Lucas replied through his blubbering, only Lucas himself could understand it. He resisted Dan's embrace with everything he had until suddenly, he was clinging to his father with his left hand while trying fervently to erase the burn in his behind with his right, his tears and runny nose soaking his father's expensive shirt with a stain Dan would never launder away. The man held him close and let him bawl for as long as he needed to, suspecting that Lucas was crying from more than just the pain in his bottom. And if that was the case, well, Dan could definitely understand why. He hugged Lucas tighter and pressed a kiss to the side of his head, cursing both Karen and himself for all the time they had wasted, all the years he'd been cheated of being a father to this particular son.

It took a long while, but eventually the storm passed. Gradually, the sobs coming from Lucas quieted completely and sniffles and hiccups took their place, and when that moment came, Dan kissed the side of his head a second time before he released his hold.

"You all right, son?"

Lucas was not. He was hurt. He felt violated and mistreated, and he was angry and confused at the way Dan had hit him then comforted him. It was one thing for his Uncle Keith to spank his butt when Luke was thirteen because Keith had earned that right by being his substitute father for over a decade. But where did Dan get off? Lucas didn't love him or respect him like he did Keith. The only significant bonding father and son shared so far was the last twenty minutes … and that wasn't nearly enough.

As Dan repeated his question, Lucas pulled his shirt over his head then used it to wipe the remaining wetness from his face.

"I'm going to my room," he muttered with a sniffle. He cut his eyes away from his father's and tried to leave, but Dan laid a strong hand on his arm, holding him back.

"No. If you don't want to talk to me yet, Lucas, then you can stand in that corner over there and think." When Lucas raised his head and stared at him with a new sense of betrayal, Dan didn't flinch. Instinct told him he couldn't allow his boy to leave until they had talked this out, so he kept his tone even the way he imagined Keith would have. "Do it, son."

Lucas did, albeit with no grace whatsoever. He yanked his arm away from Dan then stomped into the corner right behind the chair, glowering fiercely when Dan followed him as far as the door then locked it.

As soon as Dan caught him watching him, he jabbed a finger at the wall. "Turn around and keep your nose poked in that corner, son. Either we talk or you face that wall. Your choice."

Lucas chose the wall.

With a pounding heart, Dan stared after him a moment and then returned to his desk to shred the incriminating documents that Lucas had brought him earlier. He glanced over frequently while he worked, but Luke wasn't moving much. His T-shirt was now draped over one shoulder and both hands were busy behind him, rubbing persistently at the sting in his pajama shorts, but that was all. He wasn't sneaking any more angry peeks at his father and he wasn't slipping closer to the door, plotting an escape. Still, Dan had no illusions about how Lucas felt while he was standing in the corner. In Lucas right now, Dan could see himself as a teenager, and he knew exactly how he would feel about an absentee father who suddenly thought it was okay to lecture him then punish him with a hot bottom.

Daniel Robert Scott wasn't going to be an absentee parent anymore, though. He couldn't afford to be after the steps he'd already taken this night. He checked his watch, waited another ten minutes, and then called Lucas from the corner.

"Come here, son."

Lucas obeyed, but the sulky expression on his face said he didn't like his father now any more than he had fifteen minutes ago.

Dan could respect that. He came around his desk to ensure there was nothing separating father and son but air, and then he studied his firstborn for a few seconds more before speaking.

"You think I'm a hypocrite, don't you?" When Lucas shot him a look but stubbornly resisted speaking, Dan cocked an eyebrow and continued. "If you do, you're right, but I punished because I don't want you to ever turn your back on family again. Maybe you think you learned your lesson on your own, Lucas, but I need to be sure. I don't want you to ever be like me. You came too close it building that folder, so I want you to remember this night and this pain."

Lucas couldn't keep silent any longer. He shot Dan another baleful look.

"You hit me," he accused.

"I know I did, but –"

"You spanked me for being a bad son to you when you've almost never been a good father to me."

Dan's dimples were deeply pronounced as he nodded. "That's true but that's going to change, Lucas. I promise you." Before Lucas could respond, Dan pulled him into a hug and held him fast. "I know you're mad at me, son. You hate me for hurting you, and you have every reason to hate me for that, but I swear I did what I did for the right reasons. I don't want you and Nathan having to choose anymore between doing the right thing or standing by my side because they should always be one and the same, and I get that now. And they will be one and the same soon, I swear it. I just need you to look up to me and to believe in me. Just give your old man another chance to prove that he can be a good man and a good father. Can you do that?"

Lucas didn't nod or whisper a 'yes', but eventually his arms came up and encircled Dan's waist. The hug he gave his father was extremely weak compared to the one he was receiving, but for Dan it was more than enough all things considered. He tightened his grip around Lucas then kissed him one last time for the night and let him go with a grateful smile.

"You won't regret it, son, I promise."

Lucas returned his gaze evenly. "No more broken promises, Dad, so if you break this one, that's it; I'm going back home to my mom for good. And if that happens, you won't be my dad anymore. Nathan will still be my brother, but you won't be anything to me at all. Ever."

That was Luke's only answer and then he was gone.

Left behind in his office, Dan stared at the empty doorway for a bit, his smile larger instead of diminished. The ultimatum Lucas had just given him was exactly the kind he thrived on, the kind of challenging incentive that fueled him to surpass expectations.

He hoped for Karen's sake that her café and her club and that meddling Kiwi schoolteacher, Andy Hargrove, were enough to keep her going. Because she sure as hell wasn't going to get their son back now…


End file.
